West Coastway line
West Coastway line | |||
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standard gauge | |||
Electrification | 750 V DC third rail | ||
Operating speed | 85 mph (137 km/h) maximum | ||
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Distances measured from Brighton
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The West Coastway line is a railway line in England linking the conurbations of Brighton/Hove/Littlehampton and Southampton/Portsmouth, with 1.3 million people between them. It has short southward branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, which offer direct services to and from London.
From Brighton the
The section east of Portsmouth was electrified by the Southern Railway before the Second World War. The electrification of the tracks further west in the late 1980s enabled electric trains to travel the whole route via Netley to Southampton or via Botley to Eastleigh. The London and South Western Railway ran the tracks west of Farlington Junction, north of Portsmouth, by the inland shore of Langstone Harbour. This section was served and timetabled separately before its electrification, a vestige of having had a different original railway company.
Definition and electrification
The West Coastway line runs almost alongside or within a few miles of the south coast of Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton.[1][2][3]
East of
- Brighton to West Worthing in 1933,[4][5]
- West Worthing to Havant in 1938 (where it joined up with the electrified Portsmouth Direct line), including the Littlehampton and Bognor branches.
Services
- Current service patterns
The section west of Portsmouth sees trains from typically three operators. Its stations are managed by
In 2024, Southern proposed significant service pattern changes, by diverting all the services from Southampton Central to London Victoria to Portsmouth Harbour, as well as doubling Southampton Central to Brighton services, with an additional stop at Woolston. The lightly-used Littlehampton to Portsmouth & Southsea and Bognor Regis services will be replaced by a new Brighton to Chichester (via Littlehampton) service. The new changes are planned for June 2024.[6]
- Historic service patterns
Beyond the line and its main links to London, before late 2007 trains ran from Reading or Basingstoke to Portsmouth or Brighton; Basingstoke to Portsmouth being current. The Department for Transport withdrew the obligation of South West Trains to run Brighton services — being somewhat orbital around London — which left free train paths which were filled by extra Southern trains mainly bound to or from London.
Prior to the 1980s electrification of the "(south) Hampshire lines", including the part of this line west of Farlington, they were operated as a separate entity terminating at Portsmouth – few trains traversed the Cosham to Farlington triangle which lies north of Portsmouth and Langstone Harbours, except a daily Brighton-to-Exeter through (direct) train.[7] After dieselisation using 3H units in 1958, the general service pattern every hour was one semi-fast from Portsmouth to Southampton and Salisbury (some extended to Bristol), one stopping to Southampton Central and one train to Botley and Eastleigh (some extended to Reading and, until 1966, Romsey via Chandler's Ford).
History
The lines now operated under the banner "West Coastway" have a complex history and were built in stages by five different companies between 1840 and 1889.
The line from Brighton to Shoreham was a branch of the
The Southampton and Netley Railway built a line to connect with the Victoria Military Hospital at Netley, which opened 5 March 1866 and was operated by the LSWR. The final connecting link from Netley to Fareham was opened by the LSWR on 2 September 1889.
In the meanwhile the LBSCR opened the Littlehampton branch from Ford Junction on 17 August 1863 and the Bognor Regis branch from Barnham Junction on 1 June 1864.
Accidents and incidents
- On 23 July 1894 the brake van and two carriages of a train were derailed and overturned at Farlington Halt. The guard was killed and seven passengers injured.[8]
- On 22 September 1965, an electric multiple unit collided with a double decker bus on a level crossing between Angmering and Goring-by-Sea stations, due to errors by the crossing keeper. Eight people were injured and three killed.[9]
Developments, major engineering features and minor station closures
- Brighton trains serving the West Coastway leave from platforms 1, 2 and 3 on a curve to leave the Brighton Main Line.
- There was Holland Road Halt opened 1905 and closed 1956; when closed it was the only station on the West Coastway line to retain timber decking.[10] This station was sited just west of the Holland Road bridge. Remains of the steps from the street and the concrete supports can occasionally be seen in winter beside the Up (Brighton) line.
- Note: To the east of the Holland Road bridge lay the site of a first Hove station, 1840 to 1880, the site was later used as a commercial coal yard[11]
- Aldrington replaced Dyke Junction Halt in 1932 on an adjacent site. Dyke Junction Halt opened in 1905 to serve the Devil's Dyke single-line branch (3.5 miles or 5.6 kilometres in length) closed 1938
- there is the now closed branch to Kingston Wharf, serving Shoreham Harbour
- there was the junction for the line to Horsham, opened 16 September 1861 and closed 7 March 1966. The line followed the valley of the River Adur
- there was Bungalow Town Halt opened 1910, later to serve RAFbase during WWII).
- Littlehampton branch
- This is a 2-mile (3.2 km) branch line opened as a single line in 1863 and doubled in 1887
- Ford, was Ford Junction: at the third node of the triangle
- Barnham was Barnham Junction until 1929 opened 1864 as the junction for
- Bognor Regis branch
- This a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) branch line
- Drayton station – closed
- Chichester Original terminus of the Brighton and Chichester Railway on 6 June 1846; present station opened 1847 when the line was extended to Havant. Junction for the West Sussex Railway opened in 1897, closed 1935; and for the LBSCR branch to Midhurst, opened 1881 and closed to passengers 1935.
- Havant: Junction for the L&SWR Portsmouth Direct line through Petersfield and also for the LBSCR Hayling Island branch line opened 16 July 1867, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in length with two intermediate stations serving Langstone and North Hayling. The line closed in 1963.
- A triangular junction — for the two routes to Southampton and Portsmouth Harbour. After Farlington Junction and Portcreek Junction (between which was the now closed Farlington Halt railway station) Portsmouth Direct line trains use the joint L&SWR/LBSCR metals to Portsmouth. The main West Coastway route travels across the triangle to Cosham Junction where the L&SWR section, opened on 2 September 1889, begins:
- Cosham
- Paulsgrove Halt - closed
- Portchester
- Fareham First opened in 1841 as part of the Eastleigh–Fareham line. The lines to Portsmouth via Cosham and Southampton, via Netley, opened in 1848 and 1889 respectively (see dates above). There were also junctions for Gosport (the original connection from London to the Portsmouth area) and to Alton via the Meon valley – both closed.
- Swanwick
- Bursledon
- Hamble
- Netley Original terminus of the Southampton and Netley Railway, built to serve the Military Hospital, which had its own short railway and station. The line from here to St Denys was originally single track (later doubled)
- Sholing
- Woolston
- Bitterne on the outskirts of Southampton. There was a passing point when the line was single track.
With the junction at St Denys the West Coastway Line joins the route of the South West Main Line
In July 2022, Transport for the South East proposed that an underground line should be built to connect Southampton Central and Netley stations, thus shortening the travel time between Southampton and Portsmouth to under 35 minutes.[13]
References
- ISBN 0-7110-1553-8.
- ISBN 0-7117-0331-0.
- ^ Southern Main Lines – Crawley to Littlehampton. Middleton Press. 1986. Photo 105 caption.
- ISBN 0-7134-0490-6.
- ISBN 0-7153-8365-5.
- ^ "Southern West Coastway changes". 4 March 2024.
- ISBN 0-7134-2835-X.
- ^ "The Why and Wherefore: Accident at Farlington, 1894". Railway Magazine. 123 (919): 571. November 1977.
- ISBN 0-7110-2807-9.
- ISBN 978-0-906520-03-1.
- ISBN 978-0-906520-03-1.
- ISBN 978-0-906520-03-1.
- ^ "Southampton underground line proposed by transport planners". BBC News. 4 July 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
External links
- Southern Railway map, including the West Coastway Route
- Brighton to Hove cab ride video produced by British Rail (on YouTube)